Double Exposures

See You Soon / SpiderGuy

2011-03-18T10:57:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: See You Soon - This is the only picture I could find of this arch; I know I have a few of the other side but my Aperture library is still in disarray. The arch marks the entrance to the Mikasa Park area of Yokosuka. You have to go through this arch to get to the secondary gate of the base. As you leave the park area (and therefore also as you leave the base), the inscription that is visible says "See you soon". I saw it when I left base briefly today (to bring our fish back to the pet store - Brandon loves them so much that abandoning them to die was just not an option), and it made me sad. I never wanted to live here and I was literally counting down the days until we could leave; but I didn't want to leave like this.

Tara: SpiderGuy - My son's interpretation of Spiderman. With earmuffs and a kimono.

Indicator Lamp / Suburban Sunset

2011-03-14T12:00:00.005-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Indicator Lamp - I've never been good at feeling earthquakes. I think I feel movement when there isn't any, and I don't feel anything when there is. There have been literally hundreds of aftershocks, but most of them are small enough that I haven't really been feeling them, although sometimes I think I feel movement and it turns out to just be my own heartbeat reverberating through my body. But ever since the sun went down on Friday and I turned the lamps on, I realized that this chandelier lamp is the best way to tell if the earth really is moving, because even the slightest movement is amplified first by the dangling nature of the lamp, and then again by the way that the light is spread across the wall. And yes, that is a rubber duckie with a Santa hat on. I actually have no idea why it's still out.

Tara: Suburban Sunset - Taken from my bedroom.

Ominous

2011-03-11T12:00:00.004-06:00

Kerry

Kerry: Ominous - I took this picture from my balcony about 3 hours after the first earthquake. The water was starting to actually look turquoise, which usually only happens right after a major storm. (I guess a major earthquake shakes the water up almost as much as a typhoon.) The wind is starting to pick up and the clouds turned black before the sun went down - great, just what we need, a storm on top of the tsunami.
ETA: The tsunami didn't reach us here in our part of Tokyo Bay. We were very, very lucky; we didn't even lose power here on base. Others were not so lucky. Don't worry about me, pray for those up north who lost everything.

Tara: I had a picture ready for today, but it's really insignificant to what Kerry is going through right now. Today I'd rather keep the focus on Japan and everything everyone there is going through. Love and thoughts to Kerry, my friends in Japan and to all the people that are affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Rare Cheese Flavor / What kind of express?

2011-03-10T08:25:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rare Cheese Flavor - Yes, this really is "rare cheese" flavored orange juice. (Well, 51% juice. Maybe the other 49% is cheese.) I bought it. It's been in my fridge since yesterday. I haven't been able to psych myself up to try it yet.

Tara: What kind of Express? - I saw this in a dollar store and it took me way too long to realize that that was an "s" in "Fast" and not an "r." Also, I just noticed that I've inadvertently given my photos this week a WTF? theme.

Arc Light / That's Easy!

2011-03-08T22:05:00.001-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Arc Light - At Ikea I found these awesome glass vases that, if you put six of them together, form a circle. They come in six different colors, so naturally I got one of each. Today I finally bought some flowers to put in them. I had wanted *white* sweet peas and tulips, but I do like how the pink and purple turned out. I put a candle in the middle of the circle and it's really lovely how the light glows through the different colors of glass. From above, though, it just reminds me of a multicolored, flowery Iron Man chest. Iron Girly Girl, maybe?

Tara: That's Easy! - I work with my kids using educational workbooks. This was found in one of Maggie's books. Not sure what she's supposed to do here since it's kind of already done.

Stained Glass / Balls Out

2011-03-07T12:00:00.003-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Stained Glass - I was blown away when I cut up this orange; I've never seen one before that was sectioned in this way. I'm not thrilled with how this picture came out, but I was only able to take one shot before my son came over to the table and demanded to know why I was taking pictures of his orange, because he was hungry.

Tara: Balls Out - I'm not sure the car balls are helping to make this pink car more manly.

No I Don't / What's Outside?

2011-03-04T12:00:00.004-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: No I Don't - I've never quite been able to figure out the point of this poster. It appears to be something along the lines of "If you think the Spice Girls are hot, you should try our Blazin' Cajun Burger! It puts those ho's to shame." The fact that cajun food was trendy around the same time as the Spice Girls adds credence to that theory. The problem is, there is no way that this poster is that old. It just hasn't aged enough. It looks brand new. So I think that the underlying message here is actually, "Hey you, pull your ass out of 1997 and come eat another f'ing burger, you fat sack of loser."

Tara: What's outside? - Every month of Maggie's first year, I would take a picture of her sitting with a big stuffed bunny so we could see how much she was growing. Now I take a photo of her with the bunny every year around her birthday. I was only able to get a few shots in before she got bored and jumped up to go look out the window for awhile. Gavin would have gotten slightly annoyed but would have stayed until I was finished taking pictures. Maggie has more of a, "I'm gonna do me, so deal with it." type of attitude. I don't where she gets that.

Invisible / Fancy Fan

2011-03-03T09:50:00.009-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Invisible - A few days before my husband's ship pulled out, he brought us on board for a little tour. Brandon was so excited that he insisted on wearing his "Navy Outfit" - a little child-sized replica of the new "aquaflage" uniform. (Because everyone knows that sailors need to blend in to...the deck of the ship? The water? I actually have no idea what the point of that pattern is supposed to be.)

Tara: Fancy Fan - These are leftover rainbow decorations from M@ggie's birthday party. Not sure if it's laziness or the fact that we like them that has kept us from taking them down. Probably laziness though.

Boardwalk / Growing Up

2011-03-01T09:55:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Boardwalk - This is my absolute favorite analogue shot so far.

Tara: Growing Up - The last few days we've noticed that M@ggie is quickly losing her baby characteristics. She's lost pretty much all of her cute little arm rolls and she's so skinny now. I took this today as she was drawing on the back patio with chalk. It was the first time she truly looked like a kid to me and not a toddler. I may be coming down with baby fever.

Cosmos / Fairy Tale

2011-02-25T13:19:00.006-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Cosmos - This is a picture from way back in October, the day that I brought my DSLR and allllll of my lenses to Kurihama Flower World, but left the battery on the charger at home. I took all of my pictures that day with the Hipstamatic app on my phone. Appropriately enough, the reason I've been posting all old pictures this week is also a technology glitch - my Aperture library self-destructed and I have to rebuild it manually, literally one day's worth of pictures at a time. I'm up to mid-October of 2006. So when it comes time to post a picture here, I just kind of randomly open folders until I find a picture I like. Thanks, technology!!

Tara: Fairy Tale - I'm still nursing my sick little girl so this is another old picture. This was taken last summer when my husband went through a Geocaching phase. The kids and I weren't as enthusiastic about it as he was so he sadly let it go. Although, the wasp sting he got on his last Geocach made it a bit easier to stop.

Contradiction / Shadow

2011-02-24T12:00:00.005-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Contradiction - My kids are both in swimming lessons, and this month for the first time, their classes were back-to-back instead of simultaneous. So I've been spending a lot of time at the pool - long enough to finally notice the odd placement of the "no running" sign. (There's a treadmill and a stationary bike along the wall near the diving board - for triathalon training, I would assume.)

Tara: Shadow - This is an older picture that I found on my phone. My daughter has caught whatever fever cold/flu thing I had last week along with a nasty cough that I had the week before. So most of this day was spent with a sick three year old cuddling up next to me. So this picture represents a shadow of her healthier self. Ba-da-bump!

Primary / Frozen Lights

2011-02-23T12:00:00.003-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Primary - Here's a half-frame analogue shot of my son, in his red and blue coat, on a playground that I'm pretty sure was inspired by the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

Tara: Frozen Lights - This was taken right after Christmas when we got a ton of snow. I loved the way the LED lights glowed under the inches of snow.

Kawaii Pastry / Rainbow Foods

2011-02-22T11:57:00.007-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Kawaii Pastry - This is also completely normal in Japan. (Kawaii means, approximately, "cute".)

Tara: Rainbow Foods - I made sure ROY G BIV was represented in the table settings and separated three 1lb bags of Skittles by color to make a centerpiece that children couldn't get the concept of. By the end of the party my centerpiece was just two bud vases with green and purple Skittles. I loved the way the fruit platter turned out. Although, if I make this again, I'll either get grapes to represent green or get more than two kiwis and also learn how to correctly cut them so I don't waste so much trying to get the skin off. I would also like to give a public service announcement about that caramel fruit dip. This was my first time ever buying and consuming this product. If you've never bought it, don't. It will forever ruin fruit for you. Never again will fruit be a healthy snack option because you will want to douse it in that delicious, soft caramel. Trust me on this.

Tentacles / Rainbow Cake

2011-02-21T12:00:00.004-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Tentacles - This is completely normal in Japan.

Tara: Rainbow Cake - I promised my daughter, M@ggie, that I would make her a rainbow cake this year for her rainbow themed birthday. I made the cakes the night before her party and put it together in the hour between leaving her Build-a-Bear party and the time guests started arriving at my house. First though, I had to get the food ready and since we've all been sick this past week we didn't really do anything but shop in preparation for the party. So while I cut fruit to make a rainbow fruit platter (tomorrow's pic) and got the other appetizers ready, Josh put up decorations. I used a cake leveler for the first four layers then guests started arriving and started crowding my kitchen. I wanted to start icing it and be done so I quickly eyed the red and orange layers and used a bread knife to level them myself. Apparently, my eyes suck since those two layers are way too big. Oh, well; it tasted good.

Mandala / Rainbow Glass

2011-02-18T12:00:00.001-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Mandala - I got a Mandala coloring kit a couple of months ago and never opened it. I brought it with me to the hospital when my almost-3-year-old had his tonsils out on Thursday. This is how much coloring I got done while he was in surgery. I finished it the next day while we were waiting to be discharged. Incidentally, I think the kit would have been greatly improved by including a pencil sharpener. Those are some teeny-tiny areas to color in.

Tara: Rainbow Glass - I was in an antique store recently and they had this huge display of colored glass right by the window. This was taken in the late afternoon so the setting sun shining through all of it, lit the room up beautifully.

Cymbal / Apocalyptic Snowmen

2011-02-17T12:00:00.005-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Cymbal - Every time we go to the music store, my son sits down at every single drumset in turn. They are usually all electronic drumsets, but one day last June (this is an old picture) there was one that was not only a "real" drumset, but a kid-sized one at that. (He actually has a kid-sized drumset, in his room, still in the box. He knows what he has to do to earn it - he just hasn't done it yet.)

Tara: Apocalyptic Snowmen - I made these cookies this past Christmas. They're from Calvin and Hobbes. I thought it was fitting since today, in the middle of February, it was over 70 degrees. I'm still sick so I didn't even get to go out and enjoy it.

Ume / Sick Day

2011-02-16T12:00:00.010-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Ume - It is cold. Really, really cold. But the blossoms have already started. I'm pretty sure that these are ume (plum blossoms) - they're the first ones that bloom. Brace yourself, there are going to be a lot of blossom pictures once sakura (cherry blossom) season starts.

Tara: Sick Day - My necessities of the day. Tissue, moisturizer for my sad dry nose, ChapStick because of all the mouth breathing, water in a plastic cup so I don't have to keep picking up our extremely heavy glasses, and of course Jell-O. I'm starving but it's the only thing I can consider eating. Why don't they make Jell-O with medicine inside of it? I'm kind of high on meds right now so I'm not sure if that's a brilliant idea or stupid.

Sake / Portrait of Love

2011-02-15T12:00:00.014-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Sake - I had chosen this picture to upload yesterday, but then it started snowing and I got that nifty heart-shaped snowflakes picture, so I pushed this one back. I had a really hard time picking a picture for the theme - "Love". It's kind of a sore subject for me right now, seeing as how my husband is deployed for Valentine's Day - not only that, it's still that first week when everything sucks and you don't even want to get out of bed. But having said that, I finally settled on this picture, which I took at a shrine in Kamakura last weekend. It's the three loves of my life standing in front of a giant wall of alcohol.

Tara: Portrait of Love - I'm sick today so instead of seeking out things to photograph, my subjects came to me as I planted myself on the couch today while my fever climbed. My son, G@vin, drew a picture of my husband and me holding hands because of Valentine's Day. He made sure to write one of the few sentences he has memorized, "G@vin loves Mama." I love that kid so much. Sidenote: I just noticed he drew high heels on me. Funny, since I rarely wear them.

Love Snow / Sweet Love

2011-02-14T00:57:00.003-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Love Snow - It doesn't snow in the part of Japan where I live, pretty much ever. That was one of the things that was told to me when I first moved here, in a reassuring tone of voice - "Don't worry, it doesn't snow here." Like that's a good thing? I lived for seven years in places where it didn't snow; and yeah, Hawaii's weather was picture perfect every day and I wish I was still there, but geez. It is so much harder to deal with cold weather if you don't get even a little snow now and then. I mean, what's the point?
Well, tonight is the third time it's snowed in the past few weeks; and what's different about tonight is that it is STICKING! I stepped out onto my balcony and took this picture with my trusty Lensbaby Composer w/Creative Aperture Kit. Heart-shaped snowflakes! Happy Valentine's Day!

Tara: Sweet Love - I thought this would be cute for Valentine's Day. I feel the subject has the same qualities as the holiday. Candy is not real food, but generic. A little bit of candy is a treat, but too much of it will make you sick. Candy is bad for your teeth, just like Valentine's Day since it causes excessive candy eating.

Hexagonal /WWJStick on his truck?

2007-07-30T02:11:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Hexagonal - Brandon on the playground, through one of those domed plastic window thingies.

Tara: WWJStick on his truck? - Every single sticker on this truck is Jesus related. Actually there are a couple of Rescue sticker but most of them are about Jesus. My favorite is "Yo quiero Jesus?" [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

A Gift / Toe Painting

2007-07-27T03:22:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: A Gift - Brandon is always picking flowers and handing them to me.

Tara: Toe Painting - My son the artist. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Obscenity (Theme) : Graffiti / F#@$

2007-07-26T03:05:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Graffiti - I was all set to upload a different picture, and then I saw the one that Tara had on tap as a backup for today and I thought, hey, why not make today a theme day? I took this picture at the playground yesterday because I am making an effort to document as much of the graffiti as possible, in case I ever get around to writing a complaint letter about the lousy job that security has been doing around housing. Anyway. It's hard to take pictures of graffiti on this plastic playground stuff because of the way the light comes through it; the letters end up looking translucent and not really showing up in the picture. In this case, it looks kind of cool. (Also, if you look closely, you can see that this picture is actually on its side. I usually upload directly from my camera and I'm too lazy to put it through photoshop first to rotate it.)

Tara: F#@$ - No cussing signs at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Wispy-Puffy / Giddy Up

2007-07-25T02:15:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Wispy-Puffy - Clouds. How horribly unoriginal. They were really pretty, though!

Tara: Giddy Up - I thought this carousel horse was funny because it had a dead bunny and a gun hanging off of it. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Chipped / Blown Away

2007-07-23T03:41:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Chipped - The playground where I took this picture still has sand instead of that squishy asphalt stuff they use now. At first I was like, hey cool, this place is old school. Then I realized that it smelled like poop. That squishy(ish) asphalt stuff might scrape up your knees pretty badly if you fall on it, but at least it doesn't smell bad.

Tara: Blown Away - My old dog, Lulu. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Raindrops / Beach Watcher

2007-07-20T02:51:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Raindrops- It rained while we were at the park today. Then it stopped, then it rained again. It was a very light rain, so we stayed outside. Anyone who's lived in Hawaii for more than a week or so knows that light rain rarely lasts for more than five minutes. Anyway, I thought that the glare of the sun through the raindrops on my sunglasses looked really cool, so I held the lens of my camera up to the lens of my sunglasses to take this picture.

Tara: Beach Watcher - My niece, Haley, looking down at the beach from the restaurant on the Virginia Beach pier. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Coffee / Creepy Trees

2007-07-19T02:43:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Coffee - I don't really know what to say about this picture. I don't even really know why I took it. I just thought it looked kind of cool. Tuesday was my walking buddy's birthday, but since we don't walk on Tuesdays (I teach on Tuesday mornings) we "celebrated" yesterday. We were going to go to Coldstone (at the bottom of the big hill) but neither of us really felt like ice cream, so we got coffee instead. So I guess that's the story behind this picture. It's coffee.

Tara: Creepy Trees - I took this at around five in the morning when we stopped for gas somewhere in North Carolina. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Too Sunny / Grassy Feet

2007-07-18T02:37:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Too Sunny - More chalk on the basketball court. It says "What is the day like? The day is too sunny!!" It was starting to rain when I took this picture. Oooooh, the irony.

Tara: Grassy Feet - My son's feet in the grass. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Smudgy / Burning Sky

2007-07-17T01:58:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Smudgy - Brandon's friend had blue chalk all over her butt at the playground today, so even though I don't know who drew the pictures on the basketball court, I'm pretty sure that I know who smudged them up.

Tara: Burning Sky - This was taken somewhere in Eastern Tennessee. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Little Aviator / Paci Place

2007-07-13T09:08:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Little Aviator - I love these sunglasses. Brandon doesn't seem to mind them much, either. This makes me happy.

Tara: Paci Place - Usually my son doesn't use a binky during the day but right now he's teething his molars. Letting him have the binky all day, stops the crying. His and mine. Whenever I put him in his high chair, he puts his binky in the little cupholder on his tray and starts to eat. I just think it's funny that he thinks this is the purpose of the little well on his tray.

Fish Out of Water / Big Wheel

2007-07-12T08:21:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Fish Out of Water - Brandon has some interesting ideas about where his goldfish crackers should go. Under no circumstances are they to be eaten directly from the Take & Toss snack cup that they are in when I give them to him.

Tara: Big Wheel - Shrek never had a chance. This particular Shrek talks when a button on his chest is pushed. I kept hearing, "I'm an ogre!" and "Buuuuuurrrp." I look and my son is trying to kill Shrek.

Cautiously Fascinated / Messy Reader

2007-07-10T09:54:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Cautiously Fascinated - This is Brandon and his best friend from the playground. A somewhat older boy had just popped out from the other side of the fence, and they didn't know quite what to make of him. They stood completely still, staring at him, for at least two solid minutes.

Tara: Messy Reader - We have given my son the bottom two shelves of the bookcase. Every night when we clean up, I put his books away and have them all lined up. Halfway through the day, they look like this.

Questionable Hiring Practices / Faceoff

2007-07-09T00:59:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: - Questionable Hiring Practices - Talk about your dead-end jobs. (Click on the picture to see it close-up. Hint: it has to do with some kind of contradiction...)

Tara: Faceoff - Our new neighbors have two dogs that they just leave on their front porch. For the most part they seem to stay there. This is their puppy that snuck over to visit my son.

And yes my son is just wearing a onesie. It's summer so he hardly wears bottoms unless we're going somewhere.

Smart Fish / Feet

2007-07-06T08:19:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Smart Fish - I brought Brandon to Kailua Beach today and let him play in the shallow creek. There are always lots of little fish swimming around, but today I saw a small school of particularly tiny ones swimming around at the very edge of the water - it was maybe 1/4 - 1/2 an inch deep. I wondered why they were swimming in such shallow water when it occurred to me that the bigger fish couldn't get to them there.

Tara: Feet - I'm kind of obsessed with my son's feet. If I knew they would grow back, I would eat each and every one of those little toes. This picture is of my son relaxing with my husband.

Fireworks / Breakfast

2007-07-05T07:43:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Fireworks - I know, I know, again with the hibiscus bush! What can I say, I see it every day when I take Brandon to the park. Anyway, something about it reminded me of fireworks, not just with the bursts of pink and orange in the center of each flower, but in the way that the big white flowers burst out at you from the green foliage, like fireworks, and there are other flowers that are somewhat past their peak drooping in the background - like with fireworks.

Tara: Breakfast - My son eating his breakfast of bananas and grapes. I didn't realize until after I gave it to him that the bowl matched the food.

Wallmates / Firecracker

2007-07-04T07:25:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Wallmates - At the pier at Aloha Tower, there's a low wall where you can look over the edge into the water and watch the fish swim around. It isn't like any other urban pier I've ever been to - it's like a saltwater aquarium. There are all kinds of colorful tropical fish. Since Brandon is too young to go snorkeling and doesn't have many opportunities to see these kinds of fish in their natural habitat, I sat him on the wall (holding on super tight around his waist!!) so he could see the fishies. When I took this pic, he was somewhat distracted by the pigeons.

Tara: Firecracker - My son's 4th of July shirt that his grandparents sent him. Happy Fourth everyone!

Carnage / Rain Storm

2007-07-03T08:13:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Carnage - I diced up a watermelon today. I ended up with watermelon juice all over the counter and the floor. I guess my watermelon dicing skills aren't quite up to par.

Tara: Rain Storm - For the last week there has been at least one thunderstorm every day. Yesterday we took my son out on the front porch and let him watch it. He's a little wet in the picture because he got brave and kept inching his way to the edge of the porch.

You Can't See Me, I'm Not Here / I'm a Good Mother

2007-07-02T07:21:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: You Can't See Me, I'm Not Here - A gecko hiding behind the bathroom mirror.

Tara: I'm a Good Mother - Like any good mother I gave my son his first temporary tattoo with a pen. Rock and Roll baby!

Lazy / Kisses

2007-06-29T08:12:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Lazy - I was feeling really uninspired today, so I just snapped a picture as my camera was sitting on the desk in front of the computer. And, yeah, I'm eating ice cream.

Tara: Kisses - I'm totally being lazy too. At least Kerry took a picture yesterday. I couldn't even be bothered with that. This picture is old. It's just my son giving me some kisses. Which are the best by the way.

Helpful / Ring Ring

2007-06-28T08:09:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Helpful - Brandon is so helpful. He helped to wash Daddy's car. Of course he also got himself completely soaked, and muddy; and he was wearing a disposable diaper, which exploded, leaving huge lumps of those nasty absorbent crystals all over the carpet, the bathtub, and himself. But he helped get the car clean!!

Tara: Ring Ring - My new awseome bike bell. This bike is turning me into a little girl. I found pink leather streamers for the handlebars that I want to get. I think those are for Harleys but oh well.

Child Care / Looking Out

2007-06-27T08:03:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Child Care - This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken, ever. I took it shortly before we left New Orleans, and yes, this was before Hurricane Katrina. This is (was) an actual, operational, daycare center. [This is a backup entry. I am lazy.]

Tara: Looking Out - This is old. I wasn't feeling so creative yesterday.

This is my son looking out the window.

Parking Lot / Dessert

2007-06-26T00:26:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Parking Lot - Yesterday, Brandon lined up a bunch of his cars (actually two trains, a jeep, an airplane and a truck) on Brian's leather chair. Like a parking lot, I guess.

Tara: Dessert - After dinner my husband got me a bowl of ice cream and when I told him I only wanted one scoop he gave me this. He always has to make everything artistic. He's so sweet.

Pink Tree / Box of Balls

2007-06-25T08:37:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Pink Tree - This is a tree in Rittenhouse Square Park in Philadelphia. I took this picture a long time ago and it's still one of my favorites. [This is a backup entry. I just got done traveling and I am jet-lagged and forgot to upload a picture.]

Tara: Box of Balls - Just a box of balls.

Pink Flowers / Sleeping Flamingo

2007-06-22T08:32:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Pink Flowers - This picture is in my flickr photostream, but nobody ever looks at it. I love it, though. I love how it's kind of misty and dreamlike. I took it at the Waimea Valley Audubon Center (aka Waimea Falls) in Haleiwa. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Sleeping Flamingo - This is old. Sorry.

I took this when we visited the Birmingham Zoo.

Coffee / Ghost Lamp

2007-06-21T08:45:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Coffee - This is a coffee plant at the Dole Plantation. If I were ever to own a coffee shop, this picture would so be in a big frame on the wall. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Ghost Lamp - I bought this lamp a couple of years ago because I think it is so tacky, it's cute. I figured I would put it in my future daughter's room one day. It's a funky looking flower with jewels dangling from it. You can't see it at this angle, but the base is a stem with leaves.

This was taken with morning light from the window and it made it look kind of creepy.

Shimmery / Curly Tree

2007-06-20T08:49:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: - Shimmery - When it rains in Hawaii, it almost always stops very quickly. I took this picture while taking a walk shortly after an afternoon rainshower. I love, love, love plumeria scattered on the grass, and this one had so many raindrops on it that it shimmered in the sunlight. (Click on it to see the full-sized version; you'll be able to see the droplets better.) [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Curly Tree - This is one of my favorite plants just because it's so weird. It's called a Pony Tail Palm. It's maybe a foot high and looks like a mini palm tree.

$30 Wholesale / Transfixed

2007-06-19T20:52:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: $30 Wholesale - One thing that absolutely blew my mind when I first moved to Hawaii was the tropical flowers. Obviously, they grow here. So things that have to be imported to the mainland, and therefore cost an arm and a leg, grow on the side of the road here. Stephanotis (Madagascar jasmine, I believe is another name for it) costs .75 - 2.00, depending on the season, per blossom - wholesale! And here it is growing on somebody's backyard fence. Incredible. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Transfixed - This is my son eating a snack while watching TV. The weird part is that I had CNN turned on. He pays more attention to the news than he does to his shows. I think he likes watching people talk to him.

The Yin and Yang of Holiday Ice Cream / Death 8

2007-06-18T07:57:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: The Yin and Yang of Holiday Ice Cream - Back in October, we went to Coldstone after dinner (at Cheeseburger in Paradise). I couldn't decide between the Pumpkin Spice and the Chocolate Mint - so I got both. Halfway through, I looked down and saw this. I swear to you that I didn't do any arranging or sculpting. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Death 8 - This is a pastry that is so good, it will kill you. Kill you dead. It's a croissant shaped like a figure eight. Instead of holes like an eight, it has Bavarian cream. Then chocolate is drizzled over it. My husband named these Death 8s because there is no way this thing is good for you. We found these at Wal-Mart. (Don't judge! We know Wal-Mart sucks but it's all we have!) I suggest you go to your local Wal-Mart and buy these and then immediately shove them in your mouth.

Rahhhhhh! / Mini Reflection

2007-06-15T08:01:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rahhhhhh! - This is one of those quintessential pictures of my son that just expresses his personality perfectly. I took it when he was 11 months old (the day he turned 11 months, actually). You can also see his tongue tie really well in this picture.

Ready to be really jealous? See how clear and turquoise that water is? It isn't a pool. It's the enlisted beach on the Air Force base. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Mini Reflection - I slacked off yesterday, y'all. This is an old picture. It's of my son's reflection in the mirror on his exersaucer.

UArts Grads / Bike Flower

2007-06-14T07:52:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: UArts Grads - Whenever Brian and I see a performer working somewhere really crappy, we say "That's a UArts Grad!" This is at Wiggles World at Six Flags New England.

Tara: Bike Flower - My new beach cruiser just came in so now we can use my son's helmet from a couple of posts down. I got a super girlie one. White with pink accents and flowers all over it.

Chapel of the Bells / Binkies in a Row

2007-06-13T08:09:00.001-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Chapel of the Bells - We went to Vegas in December. (Everyone in Hawaii goes to Vegas at some point. Seriously.) We talked about getting "remarried", just for fun, but didn't do it. We totally should have. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Binkies in a Row - There is always a row of binkies on the window sill next to my son's crib. If he ever wakes up in the middle of the night, it's much easier to grab a spare binky then to search around his crib for the one he lost.

Lounging / Safety Fish

2007-06-12T07:12:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Lounging - We hardly ever use our strollers anymore, but when we do, Brandon loves to put his feet up. He always has. [This is a backup entry. I am traveling and was unable to get to a computer to upload a picture today.]

Tara: Safety Fish - We recently bought my son a bike helmet because I just bought a beach cruiser and a trailer to put him in. We ordered everything on the same day and the helmet was the first thing to come in. We're still waiting for the stuff to use the helmet with. Oh well.

If you look closely you can not only see the reflection of my camera but the reflection of the TV as well. Blues Clues was on to occupy my son while I took this photo.

Delayed / Summer Corn

2007-06-11T08:41:00.001-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Delayed - Stuck In Oakland. Fabulous.

Tara: Summer Corn - I gave my son a corn on the cob for the first time last night. After five minutes this was the only damage he made to it. He liked it so much that he would get stuck on a spot and he forgot to eat more of the corn. He just kept rubbing his teeth on the same parts.

Now With Flavor! / Mini Tree

2007-06-08T08:11:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Now With Flavor! - We are getting on a plane at 11:30PM tonight. I bought little "juice boxes" of soymilk, in the hopes that I will be able to get them through security. (Seeing as how they're factory sealed and all.) The last time we flew out at night (before we knew that Brandon was lactose intolerant), we weren't even able to find whole milk at the airport. So I know I won't be able to find soymilk.

Anyway, I just love the way it's labeled. "New! Great Taste!" Because, you know, the old recipe tasted like bottled ass.

(By the way, I will be gone for two weeks. I have uploaded "backup" entries for each day that I'll be gone in case I can't make it to a computer.)

Tara: Mini Tree - On the normal walk my son and I do, there is a particularly wooded part. This little leaf was growing out of the sidewalk and it looked like a mini tree. I couldn't get my camera to focus on the leaf itself so the picture didn't come out exactly like I wanted but I still like it.

6-7/8 / Water Lily

2007-06-07T07:57:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: 6-7/8 - Brandon and I both wear Crocs. He wears a size 6-7, and I wear an 8.

Tara: Water Lily - I didn't have any charged batteries yesterday so I'm using this picture from when we went to the Zoo this past weekend. This was in the pond outside of the Panda exhibit.

Shadow / Cock of the Rock

2007-06-06T07:38:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Shadow - I took this picture because I liked the contrast between the sunlit tree and the cloudy sky. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that the shape of the clouds mirrors the shape of the tree almost exactly.

Tara: Cock of the Rock - We went to the bookstore yesterday and I browsed the children section. I found a cute ABC book. This one had different animals for every letter. I flipped it open and found the page for "C" and saw they chose to use the Crowned Cock of the Rock. Seriously? They couldn't have used Cat?

Hidden Mountains / Fake Fire

2007-06-05T00:54:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Hidden Mountains - Brian had my camera yesterday, so I took this one with my cameraphone. It's clouds on the Koolau mountains, as seen from Kailua Road (at Kalanianaole Highway) in Kailua. It's pretty cool when the clouds get this low; you can hardly even see the mountains. I could have actually taken much better pictures of the clouds and the mountains once I got closer to them, but Brandon saw my phone when I was taking this one, and I was forced to put it in "Airplane Mode" (no incoming or outgoing calls) and let him play with it. It was either that or let him scream the whole way home. It wasn't worth it to me.

Tara: Fake Fire - I went to one of my husband's concerts last night and at the venue there was this display that had nothing to do with my husband's concert. It was a tree on this screen with a red light behind it. I thought it looked it neat.

Buggy / Monarch

2007-06-04T08:28:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Buggy - Okay, so I take too many close-ups of flowers and leaves. But this one is different. It has a bug!!

Tara: Monarch - We went to the Memphis Zoo yesterday. They had this really cool butterfly exhibit. It was a screened room outside and there were butterflies flying around everywhere. It was probably one of the prettiest things I've ever walked through.

* I promise Kerry and I didn't call each other the night before and agree to photograph bugs.

Slide / Toys in a Box

2007-06-01T08:23:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Slide - When we go to the park, I'm always having to climb up with Brandon to make sure he doesn't fall. Every once in a while, instead of climbing back down, I like to slide.

Tara: Toys in a Box - This box is a shape sorter. My son puts everything but the shapes in this box.

Purple / Us

2007-05-31T07:10:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Purple - This one purple flower was growing all by itself in the middle of a bunch of dead grass and leaves. It really popped out at me.

Tara: Us - I occasionally take pictures of me and my son because my husband never thinks to take pictures of us. He says he doesn't have an eye for photography so he never thinks of it. Since I like more candid photos and am not so into the posed, say cheese look of pictures, I never get any candid shots of me and my son. So I took this one myself. I don't know if it's still technically candid since we both are looking at the camera but I still like it.

Chandelier / Mouse in the Dark

2007-05-30T07:51:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Chandelier - We bought this lamp at Target a few years ago, and it's been on my dresser. Yesterday we moved it to the living room. There are no words to describe how much Brandon loves it. (His face looks cut off at the forehead because he was wearing his baseball cap backwards. I flipped it around because the brim was blocking his vision and he kept on running headlong into the playground equipment.)

Tara: Mouse in the Dark - My son's Crocs are a Disney version so instead of holes on the tops of the shoe, there's Mickey Mouse heads. I thought the light coming through looked cool.

Playground Sunset / Pretty in Pink

2007-05-29T10:49:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Playground Sunset - I don't really have much to say about this one. Every day after dinner, we make our rounds through the neighborhood playgrounds. I like taking pictures right into the setting sun because it just kind of glows in the picture. If you look closely, you can kind of see Brandon's head - he was climbing up the slide.

Tara: Pretty in Pink - Ok so I'm cheating again. Sorry. I took this picture at Graceland. There were such pretty flowers everywhere.

Big Boy Swing / Gum Galore

2007-05-28T08:22:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Big Boy Swing - My son is 18 months old, and he can sit on the big swing. I was pretty much floored when I discovered this. I think, though, that he prefers the baby swing. I push him a lot higher when he's in the baby swing. (Please disregard the fact that his shorts don't match his shirt. His shorts got dirty and these ones were clean and at the top of the drawer.)

Tara: Gum Galore - I kind of like Orbit gum. My husband knows this and saw a 15 pack box of it at the store and surprised me with it. My husband arranged them in the cupboard like this.

Revenge of the 99 Cent Store / Twisty Bamboo

2007-05-25T08:11:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Revenge of the 99 Cent Store - I have several pictures in my Flickr photostream of things I've found at the Marukai 99 cent store (cheap crap - and some steals - imported from Japan). This is a (very cool looking) bento box that I bought two of the other day. (I got one pink, one blue.) They don't actually stay closed and I have to put a rubber band around them to keep the pieces together, but I don't care. They're still the coolest thing ever. They say "feel at ease... enjoy a quiet lunch time while feeling a season. nature put a person at his ease". Awesome.

Tara: Twisty Bamboo - Kerry gave me this bamboo plant when we were both living in New Orleans and she and her husband were about to move to Hawaii. They were three stalks of twisty bamboo. When we moved from New Orleans to Memphis, I put this plant in the cupholder. I love it so much. Since Kerry has had them, there have been some changes. I had to change vases to a bigger one because they are so tall now and just recently, one of the bamboo broke. It's still alive just considerably shorter than the others. I hope the next place we get stationed, we get to drive to because I don't want to get rid of it for awhile. My dream is that someday I can give it back to Kerry when we are about to move. This means that we will live in the same city one day. That would be nice.

Scribble-Face / Shoes

2007-05-24T08:18:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Scribble-Face- After dinner, Brian decided for some reason to draw a face on the whiteboard that's inside the door of the computer armoire. Brandon decided that he wanted to climb up on the box of computer paper we keep next to the armoire, and scribble all over it. He actually added quite a lot more scribbling after I took this picture. And of course he drew on the armoire itself, too. He's only marginally interested in sitting at his little desk and coloring with crayons, but climbing on top of a box to draw on the furniture...now that is fascinating.

Tara: Shoes - Our hall closet door is broken so it doesn't close all the way unless you force it. We usually don't close it all the way. Yesterday, while my husband and I were cooking dinner, my son had went in there and brought out one of my shoes and one of my husband's shoes. He arranged them on the living room floor like this. We didn't notice them until after we put him to bed and started cleaning up the living room.

Glowing / Lonely Flower

2007-05-23T08:25:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Glowing - I photoshopped this picture in an attempt to get the colors to match up with how they looked in real life. It's closer than it was, but it still doesn't really do it justice. In the hour before sunset, colors take on this crazy, saturated, high-contrast look. They seem to glow.

Tara: Lonely Flower - I just want to state that I am cheating. I was way too busy yesterday to even think about my camera let alone, use it.

This was the only sign of Spring in my whole yard this year. I had planted annuals in this spot last year but this is not the type of flower I had planted. I don't know where this came from. I would have lots of other flowers but we have squirrels and at this point I refuse to garden because all flowers are around here, are expensive squirrel food.

Right after taking this picture, my son noticed this flower and in toddler fashion, clobbered it and tried to eat it. So I actually have no flowers in my yard anymore.

Napoleon Cymbalhead / Watermelon Me

2007-05-22T08:15:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Napoleon Cymbalhead - We have a lot of random stuff lying around our house. A lot of it (like this Napoleon Dynamite Mad Libs) is stuff that was neatly put away until Brandon grabbed it. We then end up sticking it somewhere where he can't reach it - which is pretty much limited to the kitchen counter, the (middle of the) dining room table, and on top of the computer armoire. The Mad Libs and the finger cymbals are on the telephone table, which he could actually reach if he stood on the couch. (Which he sometimes does.)

Well anyway. Napoleon Dynamite has cymbals for a head! That's just wacky!!

Tara: Watermelon Me - I'm kind of addicted to watermelon. During its season I average about one a week. With no help from my husband who, like all fruit that isn't an apple or a banana, hates it. He grew up in a house that didn't have have much fresh fruit. Where as I grew up in a house that had a mini farmer's market in the kitchen. So me? I freaking love fruit. Especially watermelon.

As soon as I buy a watermelon, I cut it up into bite size pieces, put it in my designated watermelon tub and put in the fridge to chill. Whenever I feel the need, I go to the fridge, get my tub and a fork. I have to admit that I only have to do this about three times before the watermelon is gone. This last time while I was cutting my watermelon, my husband thought it he would be cute and carve my name out of the watermelon that was leftover on the rind. He then tried to make me feel bad for not eating my name. I made him taste it to see why I had left that part on the rind. As soon as he tasted it, he quit making me feel bad.

Super Fork / Leaning Tower of Milk

2007-05-21T08:33:00.000-06:00

Kerry (Top) . Tara (Bottom)

Kerry: Super Fork - I officially lifted the ban on pictures of my son on the internet. Try not to go crazy with it. FYI, he didn't actually eat any of the stew.

Tara: Leaning Tower of Milk - I was walking down the hallway and saw this. Never mind the Cheerios sitting next to it.

Spring Week: Lace / A Bug's View

2007-05-18T09:01:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Lace - Brandon is always picking up plumeria blossoms from the ground. He invariably picks up ones that have browned a bit, and since he isn't exactly delicate with them, they get more and more bruised as he holds them. They aren't what most of us would call "pretty" but they are absolutely fascinating to him. It made me think about how things that are imperfect and past their prime can be pretty in their own way. This is a bug-eaten leaf on the same hibiscus bush from Tuesday.

Tara: A Bug's View - I took this picture by putting my camera in the middle of this branch. I think it's a fir tree of some kind but I know next to nothing about Botany.

Spring Week: Fuzzy Seeds / Smashed Handprint

2007-05-17T08:27:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Fuzzy Seeds - Spring in Hawaii is weird because there are falling leaves and seed pods - neither of which are things that happen in the spring where I'm from. It's almost like they took all of the seasons and smushed them all together into the month of May.

Tara: Smashed Handprint- This is my son with his hand pressed against the screen door. (Well actually I guess it's a plexiglass door since there is no screen.) It's been getting nicer and nicer outside, so this day we let him play in the sprinkler and then the dirt.

Spring Week: Coil / Secret Bubbles

2007-05-16T08:07:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Coil - The theme this week is "spring" and I'm a smartass.

Tara: Secret Bubbles - My husband and son were on the other side of the fence blowing bubbles. I didn't know until I walked out of our back door and saw bubbles coming up from behind the fence.

Spring Week: Spiky / Random Magenta

2007-05-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Spiky - The spring flowers I grew up with are things like tulips and daffodils and hyacinths - pretty, cheerful flowers that just don't exist in Hawaii. This is a flower that grows on bushes around my neighborhood. I don't know what it's called, and it doesn't have any fragrance, but it's pure white and colorful at the same time, and undeniably tropical looking. It doesn't exactly say "spring" to me, but I'm sure it says "spring" to people who grew up here.
(ps, I'm an idiot - it's a hibiscus. Duh.)

Tara: Random Magenta - I took my son on our usual walk yesterday. Usually the only flowers we ever see are some buttercups or dandelions. I have no idea what these are, (Uh, Kerry?) but they were definitely out of place and very pretty.

Spring Week: Pink and Green / Furry Trees

2007-05-14T08:03:00.000-06:00

Kerry (top). Tara (bottom)

Kerry: Pink and Green - This is some kind of succulent (the class of plant that cacti and aloe belong to) in a pot in my neighbor's yard. Obviously they don't put too much effort into taking care of it, since the pot is now also full of grass. I thought the colors looked nice and spring-y.

Tara: Furry Trees - After living on this base for a year and a half, we found this really pretty nature walk behind some buildings we never go to. It's fairly close to our house, so I think I'll be integrating into our daily walks.

The only bad part about this nature walk is that there is poison ivy and oak everywhere. You have to stay on the path or you will pay for it with lots of itching. I found these trees neat looking because they are covered with poison ivy, and in the sunlight, they looked furry to me.

Branches / Engineering Wonder

2007-05-11T08:56:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Branches - Obviously I have a thing for plumeria trees and clouds lately. I think that plumerias might honestly be my favorite thing about Hawaii.

Tara: Engineering Wonder - This picture is not all that pretty but I find it interesting. I'm no engineer or electrician, so I don't know how important this box of wires is, but I have to wonder how effective it is to fix this broken box with lots of rouge electrical tape. Want to know the most ironic part of this? This superb craftsmanship is being displayed right here on the military base I live on. (It's probably totally illegal to take pictures of a military base and then show the Internet. Shh, don't rat me out.)

You might say that this is just a temporary solution until they got the necessary parts to finish the job. I said that too. Back in September of 2005 when I first saw it. I'm starting to think that this is really the finished product. Yay for taxes!!

Rocks / A Duel

2007-05-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rocks - We set up a slide in the backyard for Brandon. Sometimes he uses it as a ramp for rolling his ball, but mostly he gathers up rocks in his wheelbarrow, pushes them around the patio, then puts them at the top of the slide and slides them down the ramp. This is the rocks on the mats at the bottom of the slide. (Sometimes he goes down the slide himself, too.)

Tara: A Duel - My husband and I both have Macs that we lovingly call, Mac Daddy and Daddy Mac. Yeah, we stole it from Kris Kross. I always find it funny when they sit across from each other because it looks as if the two apple logos are about to fight. I don't know why. This is just the way my brain works.

Rebirth / Red Row

2007-05-09T07:32:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rebirth - Over the winter, all of the plumeria trees in my neighborhood got sick - with a fungus, I'm guessing - and seemed like they were dying. It was really depressing. But it's spring now, and they're all blooming. I wasn't expecting them to, and it makes me really, really happy.

Tara: Red Row - We went to the state park today and I saw these flowers there. I'm not exactly sure of the name of them but I'm sure Kerry can fill me in. She is a trained florist after all.

CHEATING DAY : Goats/ King's Chariot

2007-05-08T08:49:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Goats - I took this picture on Saturday afternoon, at the petting zoo section of the Honolulu Zoo. (We didn't let Brandon touch anything.) I swear to you, we didn't plan this out in advance as a theme day (the theme being "cheating") - I was watching an extra one-year-old yesterday and didn't have time to take any pictures. I decided to post a picture from over the weekend instead, logged on to upload it, and saw that Tara did the same thing. More evidence that we are freakishly alike.

Tara: King's Chariot - Ok so I'm cheating. I didn't take this picture yesterday but this past weekend. I promise, after this no more Elvis related pictures from me. This is one of Elvis' Cadillacs that sits on the Graceland grounds. I added a blur effect just because.

P.S. Great minds think alike.

Ah, What Do! / King's Gems

2007-05-07T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Ah, What Do! - At the music store on Friday, Brandon found the drum room. I showed him what happens when you hit the cymbal, and he just about lost his mind. He spent several minutes experimenting with the different sounds that the various drums made - including the stools, of course. I'm seriously shocked he didn't throw a tantrum when we made him leave.

It's funny because we already compared him to Animal all the time. Remember the moment in The Muppet Movie when Floyd says "Show 'em what you do, Animal!" and Animal says "Ah, what do! Eat drums!" and he starts to chew on the cymbal, and Dr. Teeth says "No, no, not eat drums, beat drums!" and Animal just kind of looks up with wide eyes, the cymbal still in his mouth? Yeah, that's Brandon.

Tara: King's Gems - This past weekend my mom came into town for my son's first birthday. While she was here we went to Graceland. It's one of those things you feel obligated to do if you're in Memphis. When my mom was a teenager, she was the president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Elvis fan club. She played it off like she could care less about Graceland, but I knew she thought it was cool. This picture is an up close shot of a jumpsuit Elvis owned. There were so many displayed but this one had the most gems on it.

Wheel in the Sky / Not a Drop to Ink

2007-05-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Wheel in the Sky - keeps on turnin', I don't know where I'll be tomoooooooorooooowww...

Tara: Not a Drop to Ink - This is a jar of pens in our office. I think, maybe, three actually work. Oh and yes, that is a Tide to Go pen. I don't know why it's in there.

Chain Bridge / Cotton Clouds

2007-05-03T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Chain Bridge - I took Brandon to a new playground today. He was terrified of this bridge at first, but after a while, he didn't want to stop running across it.

Tara: Cotton Clouds - It was such a beautiful day with lots of clouds resembling cotton. I'm kind of obsessed with taking pictures of clouds and my son's feet. This is one of 33 pictures of clouds I took yesterday.

Makai / Dragon

2007-05-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Makai - The water in Hawaii is always beautiful. Usually it's many brilliant shades of turquoise and green, and blue only where it's deep (which isn't in a lot of places along the coast of Oahu). For the past few days, though, it's been darker than usual - brilliant shades of teal and azure, and where it's blue, it's almost purple. Kaneohe Bay has even more variations of color than usual, and Waimanalo Bay is the greenest shade of aquamarine that I've ever seen.

Brandon fell asleep in the car today, so I took him for a drive so he could nap undisturbed. I can't get out of the car to take pictures while he's asleep in it, so I practiced my ever-improving drive-and-shoot skills. This one was on Kalanianaole Highway, coming down into Hawaii Kai from the direction of Hanauma Bay. ("Makai" means "towards the sea".)

Tara: Dragon - This is a little dragon sculpture that sits under our bonsai tree.

Monkey Mailbox / Glass Beads

2007-05-01T07:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Monkey Mailbox - This track came with three little cars, but Daddy gave Brandon the idea of rolling balls down the ramps instead. Ever since then, he's been trying out pretty much every toy he has. Today it was his letter blocks.

Tara: Glass Beads - My husband's coworker had won the centerpiece at the Submarine Ball. It was a trifle bowl with candles and glass beads in it. She didn't want it since she had no where to put it. I took it off her hands because I have always wanted a trifle bowl. I'm sure it will stay in my cabinet for years unused until I give it away or it gets broken from having the stuff I really use piled on top of it.

This is an up close shot of the glass beads that were in it.

Haunted Tunnel / Man Behind the Curtain

2007-04-30T07:11:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Haunted Tunnel - There's never traffic on the H3. The reason why is simple: this tunnel is supposedly haunted. It was delved through a cliff that King Kamehameha had people who opposed him pushed off of. Or something like that. At any rate, it's a beautiful drive overlooking Kaneohe Bay, and I enjoy not having to deal with the kind of traffic that occurs elsewhere on the island.

Tara: Man Behind the Curtain - The reason I liked the idea of doing this site was because it would force me to take interesting pictures of things other than my kid. I can't help it though. So far half of my pictures for this site have been of my son. What can I say? He's my muse.

This is my baby boy standing on the couch looking through the curtain.

On the Needles/ Post Nap

2007-04-27T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: On the Needles - Brandon and I have developed a good afternoon routine. After lunch, we go out in the backyard. He plays in the dirt, and I sit on the wicker couch and knit. Right now I'm working on my first attempt at eyelet "lace". The yarn is 100% bamboo. It is super soft and silky, and has a nice sheen to it - this color actually looks almost pearlescent. I had wanted this project to be white, but this yarn is so gorgeous that I compromised on the color a little bit.

Tara: Post Nap - My son waking up from his afternoon nap. That's his stuffed frog in the forefront. I'm almost positive he loves that damn frog more than me. Notice how he is keeping his eyes on his frog in case I do anything to hurt it.

Artistic Expression / Sunbathing Buddha

2007-04-26T08:30:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Artistic Expression - Lately we've been finding things around the house that defy any explanation other than Brandon's budding artistic temperament: artfully stacked toys, unexpected juxtapositions of household objects, and this little installation that we found next to the front door today: Kix lined up at regular intervals (note how they curve around the corner). It was so impressive that I almost didn't want to clean it up. (Please disregard the fact that the rug is badly in need of a vacuuming. It's essentially a doormat.)

Tara: Sunbathing Buddha - This is a Buddha we keep under the lamp on the top shelf of our bookshelf. We're not Buddhists but we appreciate the religion and we just like the Buddha. My husband bought him for two dollars at a Chinese restaurant.

Rings / Foam Letters

2007-04-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rings - Brandon has finally started using the ring stacking toy in the way it's intended to be used. Up until this point, he'd been more interested in taking the rings off of the pole than in putting them back on - not that he lacked the fine motor skills to do it, he just couldn't be bothered to use them. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of putting the rings on in the right order, though. I was trying to get a good picture of the rings stacked up in reverse order, when he walked by and knocked them over. That's the kind of thing he does. The next 17 years should be fun.

Tara: Foam Letters - My son must have all 26 letters and numbers 0 - 9 in the tub with him every night. He apparently likes to bathe in knowledge.

That's Just Wrong / POV of a Gear

2007-04-24T19:35:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: That's Just Wrong - We found this today on the back of a box of Pop Secret popcorn. I think it speaks for itself. It reminds me of the one episode of the Sarah Silverman Show that I saw (due to some time-zone weirdness, it was on at the same time here as 30 Rock) - the one with "Black God". But I mean, Sarah Silverman was trying to be wrong. I don't think the folks at Pop Secret were going for the same effect.

Tara: POV of a Gear - My son loves these gears. He loves to bang them together, chew on them and pretty much just hold them. He had piled them up on the coffee table when I took this shot.

Trifecta of Deliciousness / Below the Below

2007-04-23T19:39:00.000-06:00

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Trifecta of Deliciousness - I spent a lot of time wondering what would be a suitable subject for this, our innaugural installment. I mean, first impressions, start off on the right foot, and whatnot. I guess that what I ended up choosing isn't all that spectacular - but it pretty well encapsulates my Sundays. After yoga class, I stop at Jamba Juice and get smoothies for myself, my husband and my son. Much of the rest of the day is spent trying (unsuccessfully) to get my son to drink his smoothie from a sippy straw cup, and cleaning up the spills that result when he insists on drinking it from the Jamba Juice cup instead. At any rate, I thought that the colors were pretty. (Red = Pomegranate Paradise; purple = Acai Supercharger; yellow = Tahiti Green Tea.)

Tara: Below the Below - My husband is a musician so my son and I went to see him play at Africa in April in Memphis. While my husband's band set up on stage, they had these people talk about how important it was to pull your pants up. One woman kept repeating, "We don't want to see your below the below so pull your pants up."

Then a rapper came out and busted out the oldest school beat on his Casio keyboard and rapped about how you need to pull your pants up. "Be a man, take a stand and pull your pants up. No one wants to see your boxer shooortsss." I MUST find this on iTunes.

Editor's Note: You can go here to listen to the most awesome rap ever. The guy who runs the Pull Your Pants Up Missions also runs a few other organizations. One of them is about helping kids and I find it ironic that the mascot for that one is a guy who clearly hasn't pulled his pants up.